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***Official*** New Zealand tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa 2016

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Proteas bowler Dale Steyn accuses Black Caps star Neil Wagner of lacking courage in Pretoria test | Stuff.co.nz

Hopefully this fires Wags up enough that he breaks Steyn's bowling hand tomorrow morning.
The fact that a number 10 scored 31 is good enough for me. As much as I love Kane and want him to score truckloads of tons, who ultimately gives a **** if Wagner's 31 runs became Kane's, Big Daddy scores a ton and Wagner gets 0 off 50 balls? Our score is still the same. I've never believed it with too many people before but I honestly believe Kane is largely uninterested in milestones. He knows team and situation is bigger than him. As it stands, if we knock over the last four quickly we're still a minute sniff of winning. Wagner's runs contributed to that.
 

StephenZA

Hall of Fame Member
I can potentialy understand not having a second slip.... but why is there no third man? Should not give free runs away.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
I was surprised to find NZ not playing Adam Milne... much better long term prospect. And genuine pace (ideally controlled) is always a threat regardless of the deck, will need that in India. Reading here, you seem to have a genuine spin option in Patel. Need to try get him into the squad if possible and willing.
Yeah but if you had your ear to the ground at the time - and you did, because you posted on here regularly and are a learned NZ cricket fan - there was no great uproar about the fact Jeetan Patel continued to not get central contracts. The general view was that we'd seen more than enough of him on the international stage and that he was offering nothing of particular importance going forward. So it was contract a guy who averages 40 in Test cricket or invest in what the future could be. Wasn't a particular hard choice. Mathew Sinclair continued to be the best domestic batsman in the country years after he was overlooked and we had no issue in it. At some stage you say 'hey, you're probably not good enough' and you try to find the next great hope.

Jeetan had the choice to commit to international cricket and chose not to. I don't begrudge him doing so and I have no problem with Hesson's choice at the time. The fact that Jeets is an absolute demon in county cricket...who's to say that transfers into the international arena? Maybe he's just found his niche in Warwickshire? I dunno, I've never seen him bowl a spell in county cricket. But good luck to him.
I was a little disgruntled. I wasn't stomping my feet but I didn't think it was good from the selectors and the management. "A guy averaging 40 in test cricket" is high school analysis that I'd hope the selectors and NZ cricket enthusiasts wouldn't use. One only has to look at the performances together with Vettori to see whether he was good enough or not. And yes, I do think he could have been genuinely test standard, at the level of someone like Lyon.

He'd bowled somewhat poorly at the time he was dropped, but he was a spinner playing for a team scoring no runs - on a hiding to nothing.

It's fine to search for the next Vettori when you have no incumbents but he was hard done by. None of the domestic options at the time had even come close to challenging his incumbency with proven performance.
 
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Howsie

International Captain
Patel is miles better than any NZ spinner. The idea a joke like Sodhi is getting Test matches, even in Zimbabwe, ahead of him is hilarious. I'm not complaining as he is the best overseas player year on year in county cricket and has improved massively over the last 3 years. I can understand going Santner ahead of him as they are picking him because he can bat a bit but Sodhi and Craig? Hilarious.
Patel played the last of his test matches at 32 and finished up averaging 48, three more runs per wicket than the currently 23 year old Ish Sodhi. Who cares what he's accomplished in County Cricket, in all probability Sodhi would be doing damage in that too. I mean it's not like he didn't out bowl in him during the last domestic season.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
"A guy averaging 40 in test cricket" is high school analysis that I'd hope the selectors and NZ cricket enthusiasts wouldn't use. One only has to look at the performances together with Vettori to see whether he was good enough or not. And yes, I do think he could have been genuinely test standard, at the level of someone like Lyon.

He'd bowled somewhat poorly at the time he was dropped, but he was a spinner playing for a team scoring no runs - on a hiding to nothing.

It's fine to search for the next Vettori when you have no incumbents but he was hard done by. None of the domestic options at the time had even come close to challenging his incumbency with proven performance.
It's also a major bugbear of mine so fair point for bringing it up. I meant during the time period he was overlooked, ie 2012/13, not as an overall average.

History past that point has shown that Jeetan is possibly (POSSIBLY) of Test standard. I don't watch enough county cricket to know who he's getting out, how, when, where etc. Guess it's one of those we'll never know scenarios where some will claim he's hard done by, some of us will claim we saw enough of him to know we weren't getting a potential fourth innings match-winner.

I'll remember him fondly for his 4th day press conferences where he was forced to explain to us how we were going to break the world record and score 500 to beat Team X with him at No.11.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Patel played the last of his test matches at 32 and finished up averaging 48, three more runs per wicket than the currently 23 year old Ish Sodhi. Who cares what he's accomplished in County Cricket, in all probability Sodhi would be doing damage in that too. I mean it's not like he didn't out bowl in him during the last domestic season.
As we've already mentioned on countless occasions, this is highschool level analysis. If you truly think Sodhi is in Patel's league I don't know what to say.
 

Flem274*

123/5
good lord guys none of our spinners are good enough. we pick the ones who can bat and catch then only talk about the rest when we're losing because none of them are good enough.

craig wasn't. jeets wasn't. sodhi sure as hell isn't. we'll all be happy again when southee and boult remember how to bowl well in tandem for longer than a session.
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
It's also a major bugbear of mine so fair point for bringing it up. I meant during the time period he was overlooked, ie 2012/13, not as an overall average.

History past that point has shown that Jeetan is possibly (POSSIBLY) of Test standard. I don't watch enough county cricket to know who he's getting out, how, when, where etc. Guess it's one of those we'll never know scenarios where some will claim he's hard done by, some of us will claim we saw enough of him to know we weren't getting a potential fourth innings match-winner.

I'll remember him fondly for his 4th day press conferences where he was forced to explain to us how we were going to break the world record and score 500 to beat Team X with him at No.11.
fair enough
 

Howsie

International Captain
As we've already mentioned on countless occasions, this is highschool level analysis. If you truly think Sodhi is in Patel's league I don't know what to say.
Ha. Yes, why would we look at his test career average at his current age of 36.
 

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